


What Does the Fox Say?

by amyfortuna



Series: Silmread Ficlets [4]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Humor, Metafiction, Tales That Grow In the Telling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 04:49:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9584294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: What is the origin of the curious incident of the fox in the nighttime, and what is the logical conclusion of the Gondorian loremasters 150 years later?





	

**Fourth Age 11**

Frodo-lad, the first son of Sam and Rose, was interested in wild creatures. He loved the woods and often ventured among them, coming back in the early evening to exclaim over the beasts he’d seen that day.

On that particular autumn evening, Sam continued to tell the story of the Quest of the Ring, with Frodo-lad, 9 years old, next to him. Rose, heavily pregnant, sat nearby with Elanor and Rosie-lass teaching them how to sew, and listening to the tale at the same time. Merry-lad, at 4 years old, sat on the rug, playing with his blocks, and the baby, Pippin, lay near Rose in his cradle.

Frodo could not stop boasting of the fox he’d seen.

“Put the fox in the story, Dad!” he said. “He was an old beast, grey-muzzled. Maybe he saw you and Pippin and Frodo travelling, and he thought to himself…”

Sam took up the prompt. “Well, he was passing through the wood on business of his own and he saw us sleeping under the tree, and he said…' _Hobbits! Well, what next?_ '” Sam winked at Frodo. “' _I have heard of strange doings in this land but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There’s something mighty queer behind this._ '”

Rose looked up, laughing. “Mighty queer the both of you!” she said.

Sam grinned at her. “And the fox, of course, was quite right! But he never found out any more about it.”

“Thanks, Dad!” Frodo exclaimed, and the story moved on. But every time it was told after that, there was a fox in it.

**Fourth Age 63**

“But the fox is ridiculous, Elanor,” Pippin said. “There wasn’t any fox thinking anything, or if there was, how could we possibly have known about it? We were asleep.”

“It’s part of the story, the way my dad always told it when we were children,” Elanor said, her bright face alight with excitement. “It’s in the Red Book, and that’s final.”

Pippin sighed. “Very well! If you insist, I’ll take the Red Book as it stands to Gondor. But I don’t imagine that the scholars in Minas Tirith will appreciate hobbit humour.”

Elanor grinned. “They may not, but I bet you anything the Queen will.”

Pippin tilted his head to the side. The years had been kind to him; his eyes still sparkled with a merry blue though his hair was grey. “The King will too, at that,” he said.

“I wish I could come with you!” she exclaimed suddenly. “To see the Queen again, and serve her as I did when just a lass. Those were happy days!”

“Would that you could, Elanor,” Pippin said. “But this is a journey for Merry and me, probably our last journey. There would be no one to escort you home again.”

She looked away, out the window to the west, where a couple of years ago a boat had sailed Oversea. “My lot is here,” she said after a moment. “The days of great adventure are over for now. These are loremasters’ days, where we hold in keeping all that is past, so that future generations will remember.”

“Elanor,” Pippin said softly, and the tone of his voice, so unlike the merriment that usually rang through him, made her turn back and look at him again. “No one has done that better than you. But if your duty is to remember, it is a strong trust, a deed worth doing.”

She nodded, and held out her hand. Pippin took it. “Farewell, Peregrin Took of the Shire – and of Gondor,” she said.

He gave her a smile, and took the Red Book up. “Farewell, Elanor the Fair, handmaiden of the Queen, lady of the Towers.”

**Fourth Age 85**

“So can hobbits understand the speech of animals, then?” Barahir, loremaster of Gondor, pen in hand, asked, as Merry settled himself into a comfortable chair.

“No!” Merry said. “Animals do not speak, not here, and not in the Shire either.”

“But trees do?” Barahir said.

“Ents do,” Merry rejoined. “Ents are not trees. They are to trees as shepherds are to sheep.”

“But why, in your tale, does a fox speak?”

Merry shook his head. “I don’t know, but I assure you that if a fox had spoken in my hearing I would have remembered it!”

**Fourth Age 160**

“ _What_ does the fox say?” Findegil looked down at the fading scroll.

“In my youth, I spoke with Meriadoc Brandybuck of the Shire,” Barahir said, in his slow ponderous way. “He assured me that foxes, nor any other animals, do not speak. Perhaps the fox only thought what is written there.”

“I don’t see how that makes it any better,” Findegil said. “If a fox thought what is ascribed to him here, that too would be a wonder. And how would anyone know what a fox was thinking, unless he spoke his thoughts? And according to the narrative, all those present save the fox were asleep at the time, so if the fox had spoken, how would they know of it?”

“Perhaps the fox was not a fox, but an…Elf, transformed into a fox for a punishment, due to misdeeds in his former life.” Barahir’s voice was thoughtful, but Findegil could sense the laughter hidden in it.

“Perhaps the fox was a Maia of Yavanna, wandering the woods of the Shire to keep them safe and well-protected.” Findegil hid a smile behind his hand.

“Perhaps the fox was no fox at all, but a metaphor!” Barahir sat up straight. “Yes, I think this must be it. The fox is our inner struggle for understanding in the face of great mystery.”

“The fox is clearly the defiance of social convention as made necessary by danger and the potential for harm!” Findegil didn’t bother to hide his smile now, and scribbled notes furiously.

“No, the fox stands for unconventional relationships. Note how he remarks on there being three of them, under a tree,” Barahir said, gesturing to the scroll. “And of course, for hobbits, trees are the mark of the outside world, seeing how they reach up into the sky, in a way that hobbits cannot, being so short. So the fox is indicating the shock of society at the nature of the carnal relationship between these three males.” Barahir gave an audible sniff. “How brave of Frodo, Sam, and Pippin to defy all convention in their love for one another!”

Findegil shook his head. “That’s it, I do believe you have the truth of it. Now, let me examine this scroll to see if I can find further evidence of this so-called unconventional relationship….”


End file.
